As a follow up to our Guest Post by Leslie Mitchell No School Dances For My Daughter, I thought I would write about my 15 year old daughter’s fun-filled Saturday night and the events leading up to it.
My daughter was invited to a friend’s Sweet 16 Party and the invitation specifically stated that the attire was “dressy.” Hmm, this was going to be interesting I thought.
When I asked her what she was going to wear her reply was, “I have no idea.” Downplaying it a bit, I left it at, “well, if you want to go shopping, just let me know.”
A few weeks went by and I asked again her what she was going to wear. At this point she started rummaging through her closet and came out empty handed. Being the cool mom that I am (or at least I think I am), I offered up the idea of grabbing a friend or two and heading to the mall rather than have mom take her dress shopping, because, in her mind, what the heck does my mom know about fashion! For once, she thought I had a great idea. My only conditions were that she send me a picture before she actually bought anything and that she had a $50 limit.
A few days later she’s at the mall with her friends and I start getting pictures of different dresses. Certainly not the type of dresses that I had expected to see. Initially I thought she was yanking my chain, but I quickly realized she was serious. I was sooo not ready for the tight little black dress on, what used to be, my little tomboy. I didn’t respond with “no freakin way,” or “are you serious,” rather, I just hinted that maybe one showed a little too much skin and another was just a bit too much for a 15 year old.
She finally sent me a picture of one that she really liked and with a big sigh, I responded back with, “if you like it, then get it.” Would I have preferred a longer, looser dress? Absolutely, but I had to accept the fact that she is growing up and I can’t send her to a fun little party looking like one of the daughters on Little House on the Prairie.
Now that the dress was purchased, she needed shoes. She asked me if she could buy a pair of high heels. Again, I had to take a deep breath and say, “if you can prove to me that you can walk in them without hurting yourself, I’ll consider it.” Being that she’s a volleyball player and just starting league play in high school, if she ended up with a broken or twisted ankle, I think her coach would want to kill not her, but me, for allowing her to wear the darn shoes.
So, shoe shopping we went. It took less than 10 minutes for her to find what she was looking for. I made her walk around the store in them for another 10 minutes and I was pleasantly surprised how well she did. I remember I didn’t do so well in my first pair of heels, in fact, it was quite disastrous!
Fast forward to the day of the party and she comes downstairs looking so not like 15. My husband looked at her and then looked at me and rather than him giving me the evil eye, he complimented her on how nice she looked. I leaned over to her and said, “be sure you’re careful when you sit down and keep your legs together.” My little tomboy replied, “don’t worry mom, I have my volleyball shorts on underneath, I got it covered!”
The next day I learned that she kept the heels on for about 5 minutes after she walked in and then all the girls took them off for the rest of the night to dance. Her brothers questioned why she would take them off and she told them, “you try dancing in those things!” Well one of them did, this is so wrong but I had to post this picture!
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